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Month: August 2014

Recently I put out the word to my neighbors via a neighborhood Facebook page that I’m interested in gleaning any extra yard produce if they weren’t using it. I got a pretty nice response, the best being from a neighbor who had tomatoes among other things. There were at least 4 different types from what I could tell. I picked to my heart’s content and took home a bucketful of ripe organic tomatoes. So what did I do? I made sauce, of course.

I threw some herbs from the garden, some locally sourced garlic, sea salt a pinch of sugar and evoo into the pot along with the beautifully colored orange and red tomatoes. I simmered the mix for the day and when it was done i blended it with a stick blender which also removes all the tomato skins! I’ll use this awesomesauce to make eggplant chicken melts for my family for dinner tonight.

Ever since I learned about herbal honey a couple of years ago, I have made it a priority to keep some in my fridge at all times. If you’re like me and prefer natural cold remedies to over the counter stuff you will be making this, I’m quite sure!

The base for this incredible chunky elixir is lemons, ginger and local raw honey. I like to add various things to this mix, we’ll get to that shortly. 😉

Lemons are loaded with Vitamin C and bioflavinoids, both are wonderful at restoring the body back to health. Lemon is also anti-inflammatory and helps to soothe sore throats.

Ginger is antiseptic, anti-inflammatory and promotes perspiration. It loosens phlegm and is great in tea.

Honey in raw form retains the natural medicinal qualities and resins that nourish the body unlike processed honey can. “Honey has been used in Ayurvedic medicine for more than 4000 years. Honey is an ingredient in 634 remedies in ancient Hindu vedic texts. The Ebers Papyrus of ancient Egypt expounded on the medicinal properties of honey, and it is contained in nearly every ancient Egyptian remedy. In ancient Greece, Hippocrates, the “Father of Medicine” wrote, “Honey and pollen cause warmth, clean sores and ulcers, soften hard ulcers of lips, heal carbuncles and running sores.” – See more at: http://www.theorganicprepper.ca/raw-honey-liquid-gold-in-your-pantry-03262013#sthash.CSeu0fhM.dpuf ” When you use local honey not only are you helping out your local bee-keeper and community, you are ingesting the pollen of local plants and that sort of acts like a natural allergy shot.

Thinly slice the lemons, finely grate the ginger with the peel, put it in a big mason jar and cover with honey. Honey is also a natural preservative so it will keep in the fridge indefinitely.

Now for the fun part! You can customize this old folk remedy to your liking, I have and have come up with some pretty amazing stuff. I’ve added dehydrated rosehips, rosehip puree, cooked elderberry puree, cinnamon, buddha’s hand, meyer lemon, galangal and even garlic to it. Not all at once but I like to keep adding to the existing jar, rarely do I start over with a clean jar, it makes it interesting and it’s always delicious.

I often combine it with fire cider, I’ll blog about that soon.

Just keep it in the back nether regions of your fridge, after awhile it begins to gel together, kinda like jam. When you feel the crud coming on put a big spoonful in a glass, add hot (not boiling) or room temp water and drink this tea several times a day until you start feeling better.